Prime Cabinet Secretary and CS Foreign Affairs Musalia Mudavadi has disclosed that 316 Kenyans have lost their lives while working in the Gulf States since 2002.
Appearing before the Senate on Wednesday, July 10, the Prime CS noted that 166 Kenyans had died in Saudi Arabia, 58 in Qatar, 51 in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), 25 in Iraq, 10 in Bahrain and six in Kuwait during the period.
Mudavadi, however, stated that no Kenyan had lost their life in Oman and Iran during the period.
“The records we have show that the total number of Kenyans who have lost their lives in the Gulf region since 2002 to date is 316,” the Prime CS remarked.
Mudavadi noted that upon receipt of a report of a Kenyan abroad, the first step by the Kenyan missions abroad was to notify the families affected.
At the same time, he explained that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a robust counselling department that provides psychological support to bereaved families and coordinates arrangements for the family to receive the body.
“The mission facilitates the obtaining of a postmortem report to establish the cause of death and provide necessary documentation to facilitate the repatriation of the body back home,” Mudavadi explained.
He further intimated that 416,548 Kenyans are currently working in the Gulf region: 310,266 in Saudi Arabia, 66,025 in Qatar, 23,000 in the UAE, 8,000 in Bahrain, 5,392 in Oman, 3,515 in Kuwait, 200 in Iran and 150 in Iraq.
The Prime CS, however, said that it was challenging to provide the identities of these individuals because some do not register with Kenyan missions.
“It should be noted that not all Kenyans register with our missions abroad despite being sensitised on the importance of such registrations hence sometimes it is difficult to have very precise data,” he remarked.
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